Alex Terrell's Blog

Left behind and left in the dark

2010-07-04T21:01:00.007+01:00

There are few certainties for haemophiliacs who have been given contaminated blood. When an individual's condition will worsen, when they will get better, what drugs they can receive, how to plan for the future, if infections have infected loved ones through intercourse or through the family. It seems like many are trying to walk through quick sand.

Yet there is one subliminal pattern to the whole catastrophe. The gender issue. Whilst the men are (on the whole) affected with haemophilia and 4,800 given contaminated blood, it is women who are left behind to deal with the grief, keeping a family together, finding money, raising children and for many, maintaining a career - when their husbands are gone. The government set a cut off date for those who wanted to claim money from the government when they instituted payments for the widows and widowers of contaminated blood.

To many this makes no sense - and it has added to the certainty amongst many campaigners that the previous governments have wanted to put their fingers in their ears, close their eyes and hope they go away. This couldn't be less the case. Many widows and widowers of contaminated blood victims need support more and more as time goes by. And not just money, but personal, social and often emotional and psychological support for protracted ordeals. Which of them can the state deliver?

On another subject, it was noticeable the muted media response to the contaminated blood victims' protest last Wednesday in Westminster. I noticed teams from ITV Wales News and ITV Anglia News - and me. (Both teams of 3 each - and ONE of me, OK now I'm just boasting). Yet I heard rumours from deomonstrators that they had called fleet street to see if they could spare journalists for this protest (it's not like it's far away). I don't know how many journalists got in touch with campaigners afterwards, afterall editorial budgets are squeezed at news titles across the country, and staff levels are dwindling. Surely in the times of massive budgetary cuts in government - THIS would provide some depth to the news stories, instead of hearing about Kerry Katona (did anyone ever warrent less publicity?).

OK, that's an unfair association - but I'm right about this story in comparison to the budget cuts, and as an (almost) qualified journalist, I can say that this is a good story for journalists to write about.

Lest we forget The Sun's lip service to the campaign in 2008? I'm pretty sure I didn't see any Sun journalists there on Wednesday. I might be wrong, but good story missed I say. I thought they were running this story. (OK, again, that's a bit cruel.)

This goes onto a bigger question of newsworthiness - is the contaminated blood scandal newsworthy?

It's probably lacking one thing - freshness. For myself, there's often a fresh angle to pursue in the whole case, I hear and see new things all the time that are newsworthy. But overall, contaminated blood probably lacks the clout of a shamed minister or drug company to hit the headlines in the way it wants. (It's well known within the haemophilia community that much of the public thinks this has already been "sorted out").

Another hinderance to newsworthiness is the sheer complication of the story. It's often hard to illustrate - but I get around this by trying to keep it simple for the reader/viewer whilst giving them enough technical, medical or political jargon for a healthy diet. How would my Grandfather want to read the story?

But again, until this is properly addressed by government, this is still a scandal, this is still an injustice and yes, this is still a story.

What do contaminated blood campaigners deserve?

2010-06-25T11:47:00.014+01:00

Throughout my research, interviews and conversations about the contaminated blood campaign - which arrives at its mid-summer zenith in London on 30th June - I have discovered many new things, some shocking, some awe-inspiring. Yet one fact remains that really adds fuel to the fire of haemophiliacs who were given tainted blood products in the 70s and 80s, and that is the British government's refusal to admit responsibility for their actions.

This is very frustrating for the group. If you do a straw poll of affected haemophiliacs, they'll tell you they would rather have the government admit liability than see a penny of compensation. Yet the two go hand in hand. In terms of media scrutiny, the political and legal rigmarole of years of lobbying and campaigning, have managed to keep the issue out of the headlines, and into a few middle-pages of the papers.

Sorry if the video is too big, it doesn't seem to want to shrink, here's the link if you can't make it all out. Courtesy of CampaignTB.

For me, nothing exemplifies the campaign better than the above video of Glenn Wilkinson trying to talk to then health secretary and Lincoln MP Gillian Merron. (Needless to say she lost her seat in May by about 1,000 votes, many Lincoln locals noting that she wanted to put the Westminster ladder ahead of the constituency).

Constituents, campaigners and even a group of MPs and Lords have been quite disillusioned by the fact that the cogs of government seem unable to turn on this issue. The system of representation, doesn't seem to be representing. Lord Archer and Lord Morris' Shakespearean proclamations in the House of Lords seem to echo back into the ears of their speakers.

I spoke to Cardiff Central MP Jenny Willott recently, who told me that the issue has fallen behind in parliament after a new group of MPs have been elected - but she holds faith in the fact that there is cross party support from the likes of Alistair Burt (Con, N.E. Bedfordshire), Brian Idden (Lab, Bolton) and Lyn Featherstone (Lib Dem, Hornsey and Wood Green). The ongoing hope now is that they can bring this to the attention of new MPs, but this process could be long, and drawn out.

This doesn't help the lives of haemophiliacs though. Last week I attended the funeral of a South Wales entrepreneur who lived with haemophilia and Hepatitis C before contracting liver cancer. Leigh Sugar's ability to stay positive, never complain and keep his business running as well as fight for a pioneering drug not offered on the NHS, was truly humbling. It didn't surprise me that around 100-150 people waited outside the chapel at Pontypridd Crematorium just to hear tributes to the man.

Yet some also suffer some horrible treatment programmes, Leigh included, and continue to struggle with highs and lows of gruelling treatment programmes. It surely isn't fair for politicians to let this happen to those who they represent.

In a recent conversation with a haemophilia campaigner, he reminded me of the strife and indefatigable purpose of abolitionist William Wilberforce. It seems politics at large might take note of his self assured philanthropic approach:

"If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large."

TV Blog No. 2

2010-03-15T00:45:00.003Z

For our second television newsday, I felt that the process went much smoother than the first occasion.

Most importantly, we managed to run to deadline and deliver the news programme on time and with slick presentation.

However, because we had an earlier deadline, our news approach was a little softer, and we had less of the complete journalistic packages that we might have achieved with a later deadline. Nevertheless, the we had certainly learned both the moral lesson from the previous occasion, where we were late in delivering our news bulletin, and also we had better honed technical skills to take into this week, and it certainly showed with the efficiency of the production, from script editing, to technicalities.

The biggest major technical issue with this production was the fact that we did not press record on the tape when we produced our best bulletin, so we had to go back and do it.

In this week I was editor, and acted for much of the day as man-manager first of all, because I did not want the team to be in another position where we were late. If I gave a member of the team a task, they certainly kept to it, and I was pleased with the diligence of the team in getting on with tasks and producing them.

The producer for this newsday was Shreeja, and we both made sure that it was as easy as possible for her to be informed of, and provided with the running order. Although she worried a few times, I made sure that she had scripts, and that there were copies for our newsreaders and myself. This was very important, and I also emphasised to the team that having the scripts ready was more important than having the packages ready, as they could go until last and be uploaded onto the Tricaster.

We had two presenters this week, which were Simon and Myriam. The two of them worked well and provided some chemistry (simply by the mere presence of having two newsreaders instead of one) and it was definitely interesting in comparison to Meg on her own in our previous attempt. Some news programmes such as BBC South Today, and even the BBC Six O'Clock news usually use one newsreader, whereas ITV, Channel 4 News and even Sky Sports News tend to use two presenters, and the chemistry makes the viewing a little more varied. However, it can also be a little more intimate when you have just one newsreader.

Furthermore, when you have two newsreaders, you should usually have two cameras, one focussed on each of the presenters. We did not have this luxuary, and it would have been both a complicated and interesting project to experiment with more cameras and switch between the two. However, it would have also been logisitcally risky.

A serious criticism of the news stories was the fact that they were overall a bit soft for a decent news order. The news programme also lacked some depth because we only used photographs and quotes for some of the stories where there should have been packages. Although it is a difficult balance to strike, I regret that our team did not get some more packages together, possibly from the previous evening, and produce a package

TV Blog no. 1

2010-03-14T23:43:00.004Z

For our first televison newsday, my team were divided into an editor, produce, newsreader, and journalists. We had a deadline to 3.30pm for all of our stories to be shot, scripted, edited and ready to go.

This proved to be harder than we thought. We were at least fifteen minutes late in delivering our news, and in the industry, this is simply unacceptable.

Problems manifested themselves mostly in my own role as producer: I wanted to pre-record a weather report which didn't happen. I'd pre-recorded a package which didn't appear in the order on the Tricaster. These technical glitches seriously hampered my own and the team's result from the television newsday, and lessons had to be learned. My own lack of experience with the equpiment was evident also, as I tried to send files to the Tricaster, thinking that I could only do this through Mac mode on the computers, when I could have simply used Windows. This occupied a lot of my time before I was told to use windows. Also a few of the team members arrived back late, so not only did they not have scripts, but they did not have finished packages, sending the whole operation into dismay, as we lacked the preparation going into our actual deadline.

When we got into the studio, there were various technical glitches with the autocue and the tricaster, which meant that our background was only basic and had various technical glitches in its appearance, mostly with the blue-screen. The presentation therefore looked a somewhat shoddy and the effect was quite distracting from our newsreader, Meg.

This was disappointing, but also showed our lack of familiarity with the equipment. From my point of view, it felt as if the whole production had fallen apart because of my lack of expertise - it was certainly a lesson in keeping it together under pressure.

In the actual newsread, Meg kept it together well, but she also made reading errors, which is bound to happen when your news team, thus newsreader is under-prepared.

A sound piece of advice from The Broadcast Journalism Handbook by Hudson and Rowlands discusses the use of autocues:

Most importantly, the prompter follows the presenter, not the other way round. It scrolls at your speed. An experienced operator will ensure that the words you are reading are always toward the top of the screen, so that you can see what's coming next. This helps with your delivery ... It is important that you do not become a slave to the Autocue ... If you have a paper script in front of you, remember to turn the pages even as you are reading from the prompt.

Other production issues on this television newsday included then fact that there was no image during a pre-recorded in-studio phonecall, and a quote read on screen was supposed to have a white background and photograph attached to it. Also our final story had no sound. Quite why this happened I don't know, although, as producer, it was my responsibility, and felt responsible for the outcome.

Convergence Week Analysis

2010-03-14T00:01:00.003Z

During the second occasion which we had radio newsdays, I was unwell and therefore unable to attend the day's work - therefore as a subsititute this blog post will cover the convergence week newsday, already posted further down on my blog - when I acted as newsreader for the stories. It's a role I now know needs a lot of practice to get good at.

If you listen to radio newsreaders on BBC Radio Solent, Heart FM or Wessex FM, they all have a strong, clear reading style that flows. It obviously comes with a good voice for radio and the daily rigor of reading the news and writing clear, effective copy.

One of my problems was that I hadn't read over the scripts until the last minute, and also had some delivered to me just before the deadline by a member of our team. This meant that the scripts didn't read as well as they should have done on air. I think I should have gone over the scripts with the editor, Meg, so that she knew how I liked to read, and I also had some effect on the style in which the scripts were written.

According to Hudson and Rowlands:

People who can communicate perfectly well in casual conversation and in some cases write perfectly good essays, or even newspaper copy, become afflicted by all manner of verbal tics when they write for broadcast ... In a news script, there is no place for padding or superfluous words ... Each word in a news script not only has to be used precisely, it has to justify its inclusion. Concise writing is essential. (132)

I would consider scripts with scribbles on every single page, crossings out and the constant replacement of words on the page to not only be slapdash, but ultimately an unprofessional approach. When writing a radio script, one can most simply overcome any complications in their writing by firstly reading the script aloud and secondly one or two pairs of eyes look over the script before deadline. It should be printed and maybe have pen markings on it to emphasize words and pauses.

Another production issue we had on this day was the fact that we were a team of three. It was Joel, Meg and myself. For the first bulletin we had to write for 2 minutes, and for the second bulletin, 3 minutes. This proved tricky, as we had to source, produce and find sound clips for each of our stories. This also meant that we went slightly out of our remit into finding stories that were a bit too wide, unspecific or not newsworthy enough. This was also a smack of realism, as many radio stations nationwide have one or two members of a news team, and have to find all the news they can get on a story.

On convergence week we also had the added complication that we wanted to cross promote our website content and share stories with other members of our team.

Radio Newsday 20.1.10

2010-03-12T20:22:00.006Z

On this radio newsday we were responsible for South Coast Radio, which has an audience range of 35 and older.

The major challenge on this day was management of news values and addressing them toward the target audience.

According to The Broadcast Journalism Handbook by Gary Hudson and Sarah Rowlands, there are several approaches to news values, including: audience; relevance; shock value; drama; immediacy; controversy; proximity; localness and angle. Significantly, because radio is such a tight medium in terms of its ability to convey language in a short amount of time, angle is really the only variable that the journalist or news organisation might control.

Hudson and Rowland say,

The angle is the approach a journalist takes to a story. Sometimes there are several possible approaches to the same story. Recognising the different angles available not only helps focus on the best way to tell a story, it offers the opinion of featuring different approaches in later bulletins, updating and freshening the coverage without necessarily relying on new information. (39)

In the United States, there is a tradition of talk radio, most famously with Howard Stern, who is the pioneer of pure polemic chat radio - but it is completely un-newsworthy, especially in the U.K.

With our newsday on 20^th January, we were in a conundrum for news values. Still quite new to what makes radio news values, our ability to emphasise news angles through well-written copy and crafted angles was a bit flat. This is, however, one of the hardest skills in radio journalism. However, our top story of the day regarded an aftershock in Haiti.

According to David Randall in The Universal Journalist,

As with all such rules of thumb, there are exceptions to this scale. News fashion can often be responsible for these. Stories which a week before would have hardly merited a small inside piece are suddenly transported to the front page because they have caught the present news wave.

This story certainly suited the news values of the news fashion and I think was a justified decision. The public's attention was certainly focused on Haiti in the preceding days, and the entire Haiti story throughout the worldwide has heightened by the relative poverty of Haiti to the rest of the economically developed countries of the West.

The next most common story we included in our news order was one of a warehouse fire in Bournemouth, which was the home of a charity. I slightly feel we missed the boat on this one with newsworthiness, because we did not emphasise in our copywriting, the fact that this warehouse is the home to a charity, which has human interest connections.

Technically, this newsday ran pretty smoothly. A couple of times, Tim did not manage the sound desk as well as he could have, and that comes down to his lack of experience with the equipment in turning the input down when there are clips playing, and the editor's (Meg's) responsibility to check that the scripts and clips are properly correlated.

The podcast later in the day gave us more license to talk about the issues involved, but executionally, I was a little underprepared for the podcast, and left my script in the studio when talking about Peter Storrie, and at one point implied certain things about his character that could be defamatory.

Here's all 3 bulletins from the day, check out the bottom for the 12:30pm and 1:30pm bulletins:

Radio Newsday 20.1.10 by alxanderterrell

Paddy Ashdown Interview - Lytchett Matravers 11.3.10

2010-03-12T15:36:00.008Z

I interviewed Paddy Ashdown in Lytchett Matravers, Dorset yesterday evening. It was at a public meeting (hosted by the Lib Dems), giving Lord Ashdown a platform to speak on what he sees as his 4 key areas: the economy; Parliamentary reform; Britain's international relations; and global warming.

It was pretty frantic, Meg and myself arrived at the meeting and within a minute I had to interview Lord Ashdown. Needless to say I hadn't prepared questions, I really wanted to hear his speech and ask him questions afterwards, but such is the way of a journalist! Here's my attempt:

Paddy Ashdown interview 11.3.10 by alxanderterrell

Lord Ashdown chatted particularly about these four points, and he also answered questions from the audience about Israel, Northern Ireland, the dangers of localizing politics and the technicalities of Afghanistan.

He also coined a very shrewd phrase, "the second age of internationalism" - which refers to the plural global politics and marketplace we now, and increasingly will, live in. I'm glad he's talking about it - Westminster certainly isn't.

Referring to the Liberal Democrats, "right back to the days of Gladstone, internationalism is in the marrow of our bones, it's in our blood ... we will not relinquish that view of the world." Stirring stuff.

I also interviewed Annette Brooke MP who was very nice, and answered some questions on her friendship with Paddy and the prospect of a hung Parliament:

Annette Brooke MP 11.3.10 by alxanderterrell

Thanks Meg Fairhurst for giving me a lift to the event and helping me interview.

Radio bulletins from convergence week: newsreader

2010-02-25T19:25:00.006Z

Convergence week was a few weeks ago, but I thought we'd lost these sound files - thank God we hadn't.

Basically, convergence week is five days on my course that we spend doing television one day, radio the next and online the next, or in another order. It is very important to stick to deadlines here, and as you can imagine, some things go wrong.

This is our first attempt, a 2-minute bulletin for 15:30 on 10/2/10:

MAMMJ convergence week 10.02.10 - 15.30 (studio1) by alxanderterrell

And our second attempt at 16:30:

MAMMJ convergence week 10.02.10 - 16.30 (studio1) by alxanderterrell

I think both were fair attempts - newsreading is a brand new skill for me, and some of the scripts came in with errors, unfinished and/or inaccurate. This happens in the real radio world - and our entire team know that it is not acceptable to be anything but on the ball. Of course I stress the word team, if you don't trust what your teammates can do then you're in the wrong boat, Sonny.

Also, as you can probably hear you need your team to read the stories aloud - there is too much sibilance in some of the copy, and in others over-complicated sentences. Simple + effective = informative. If the information is the bricks, the language is the mortar.

Sometimes my news reading leaves a lot to be desired - but practice I will!

Landgrab highlights uncertainty for ITV Wales news

2010-02-20T19:01:00.006Z

Three bidders for the ITV Wales news contract are waiting in the wings for an independent panel to decide whether Taliesin News, Tinopolis or UTV will get the £6m kitty and the ITV slot.

Each are making bold promises in their bids, to open up new media streams that ITV has dragged it's feet in exploiting, particularly online, and to produce a product that Wales can be proud of.

Whilst this might sound simple, there are potential hazards down river.

However, each bid promises their own benefits:

Taliesin News is supported by the current ITV staff, ITN, regional newspaper producers Newsquest, Northcliffe, Tindle, Cardiff University's Journalism School and Boomerang. From the wealth of expertise there is surely a huge potential pool of newsmaking opportunities, but quite how all these interested parties will fit together is anyone's guess. On paper (pun!) Taliesin look like favourites.

Tinopolis look to be marginal outsiders - their expertise lie outside newsmaking, but I am told that the man(and woman)power, camera equipment and and news-vans are waiting in a car park in Llanelli and are ready to go. Tinopolis have a reputation for producing UK-wide live shows (such as Question Time), documentaries, sport and drama, including Welsh language drama - and are an established company in Wales. If Tinopolis win the bid, it will surely round their portfolio quite nicely.

Finally, there's the geographical outsiders, UTV (Ulster Television) from Northern Ireland. If you take a look at their website, their presentation looks a pastiche of something familiar on other media websites. But don't let that fool you. Their 360-degree product has proven popular in Northern Ireland and successful in exactly the way that bid judges hope the Welsh equivalent can be.

If either of the three bids are to succeed they will need to straddle two hurdles, and probably in the same stride:

1) That George Osbourne is a Conservative election victory away from stroking his big red pen through any government funds for such projects - essentially undercutting the whole thing. The bids are going to be decided and will be rushed through contractual negotioations (as was shrewdly illustrated by Media Guardian's Maggie Brown last week). The danger could be that another false dawn for Welsh regional news emerges - and any news programme falls flat on its face two years after the contracts are finalized.

2) Most importantly - a sustainable, trustworthy and malleable news programme for Wales to be proud of. There are many technicalities to Welsh news which BBC Wales overlook to someone else's potential gain, particularly a solution to the Welsh language "barrier" in news, sports coverage and political coverage. News is one of the fundamental ways we understand our culture, and the media have a powerful part to play in - putting it bluntly - improving Wales' news literacy. Wales sometimes has an uneasy relationship between the expanding urban sprawl of Cardiff and the rural pockets to the north. But should it be the license fee's responsibility to bridge that gap?

Over to you Mr. Brown.

On a side note: When I was in Pennsylvania for four years, the medium-sized nearest city to Shippensburg (my University town) was Harrisburg. Harrisburg is PA's state capital and the city and its sprawl has a size roughly comparable to Cardiff and the Valleys. Yet they have SEVEN television news stations delivering evening news and five newspapers - in one city. That being said, what American news gains in quantity, she loses in quality, and whilst you get grass roots reporting, you also get some hilariously poor and often annoying advertising.

Indifferent Cherries suffer late downfall

2010-01-23T22:35:00.010Z

Aldershot Town 2 - 1 AFC Bournemouth

An audacious back heel condemned AFC Bournemouth to a third straight defeat at on Saturday as Warren Cummings was sent off for a fight with Aldershot's substitute goalkeeper.

Substitute Anthony Straker’s 87^th minute back heel sent a capacity crowd into rapture at the EBB Stadium as The Shots held on for a 2-1 victory.

Andy Sandell put Aldershot into the lead with a stunning free kick from the edge of the eighteen yard box in the 21^st minute, after Cherries’ full back Ryan Garry upended a Marlon Jackson break.

The Cherries’ kept pressing their opponents but lacked conviction in the final third for much of the game with Brett Pitman creating a few rare opportunities for his team.

Sammy Igoe provided a further headache for Eddie Howe when he limped off after 34 minutes, playing through the pain after an earlier knock.

However on the hour, Steve Fletcher was fouled in the box to leave a confident Pitman to score his fourteenth goal of the season.

Bournemouth did not maintain the initiative however, and Anthony Straker hit the bar for Aldershot before Shwan Jalal was forced to make an excellent point-blank save from Shots’ lively front man Marvin Morgan.

Eddie Howe will be frustrated with his defence after they failed to clear their lines from the resulting play as Straker was poorly marked when he back heeled the winner.

The Cherries’ frustration was compounded late on when Cummings was sent from the pitch with Clark Masters sent from the Shots’ bench after a heated spat in injury time, just after an off-the-ball scuffle between Pitman and Sandell saw them both booked.

Aldershot Town Team:

Ruiz, Herd, Blackburn, Charles, Soares, Morgan, Donnelly, Harding, Bozanic, Jackson, Sandell. Subs: Masters (Sent off ’90), Straker (on: Soares ’71), Chalmers, Howell, Hylton, Hudson (on: Donnelly ’79), Winfield (on: Jackson ’90)

Goals: Sandell ’21, Straker ‘87

AFC Bournemouth Team:

Jalal, Garry, Pearce, Igoe, Robinson, Pitman, Feeney, Hollands, Bradbury, Cummings (sent off ’90), Fletcher. Subs: Guyett, Bartley (on: Igoe ’34), Connell, McQuoid, Golding (on: Hollands ’90), Thomas.

Goal: Pitman (pen) ‘61

Attendance: 4,387

Interview with Jamie Baulch

2010-01-11T20:52:00.011Z

For a Radio assignment on my course, I interviewed former Great Britain and Wales international 400m sprinter, Jamie Baulch.

Jamie was part of the Great Britain 4x400m relay team from 1997 that came 2nd to the USA on a sizzling night of athletics in Athens - only to find out 11 years later that the IAAF would overturn the result giving Iwan Thomas, Roger Black, Mark Richardson and Baulch the gold medals as a result of Antonio Pettigrew's drug admissions in 2008.

GB went 3:56 that year, 4 seconds faster than 2009's GB silver winning team.

I interviewed Jamie about the unfolding events:

Jamie Baulch Interview by alxanderterrell

Please note: I was given 2:30 - 3 minutes for the interview, and was to be performed as-live with a cue. I was supposed to challenge Jamie's stance with the questions and speculate on the issue.

In review: there are obvious flaws in my introductory cue, but that comes down to pracitce. Hopefully I can improve with more experience on radio as the course goes on.

:LATER: Also, it seems the recording is a bit quiet. As a minor technicality we were advised (on my course), to keep the recording input at level '7' for our interviews with a hand mic. I shall be cranking up the input on my Tascam DR-1.

Villa Typify what England can Expect Next Summer

2009-12-12T19:37:00.000Z

Aston Villa played a plucky 4-5-1 formation against Manchester United in their 1-0 victory at Old Trafford on Saturday evening - and the way in which they saw out the victory was positive for England next summer. James Milner, Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor seemed to have rehearsed Martin O'Neill's tactical manual to the letter for Saturday and their victory was one of the opportunism and cool headedness that international tournaments demand.

Villa's Richard Dunne scuppers an attack from Luis Antonio Valencia in his side's 1-0 victory at Old Trafford (Copyright Yahoo! Images)

Ashley Young was fantastic for Villa on the left flank against makeshift right back Darren Fletcher - and must now have one foot on the plane to South Africa. He taunted the United's defence for much of the game, and played in the cross for Gabriel Agbonlahor's well timed run and goal-bound header.

It was the sheer pace of Young, Agbonlahor, Milner (who continually made driving runs from centre-midfield) and even Heskey, who got behind the United defence on a several occasions, causing real problems. This is a tactical model Fabio Capello will have to use at times in England's World Cup campaign next summer. Milner and Young already look to fit the bill. Young especially, could play left winger if Capello deems Joe Cole's form under par.

In a week when Roy Hodgson has been hyping the international pedigree of Bobby Zamora - the Fulham forward must pray for injuries to Heskey and Agbonlahor, who seemed tough, patient and powerful against the champions. Though Villa and England fans will have their fingers crossed that a hamstring injury won't prevent Heskey from missing many more games - as he hobbled off in the second half. Capello has already promised not to consider unfit players, but a fully fit Heskey would be a real bonus for England.

As for United, Darren Fletcher's absence from midfield was an obvious void. The game seemed made for the midfield Fletcher, but United were made to settle for a lesser, more timid version of the Scot. This was the midfield base that United missed - not just for Fletcher's combative guile, but his unpredictable off-the-ball movement and penetrative runs.

Even more disappointing was United's lack of wide presence. Part organisation on Villa's part, part hesitation on United's - the early ball into dangerous areas let the home side down as crosses from Valencia and Park were headed away by Villa's defence. It resulted in forcing Rooney to drop deep off the 18-yard box and subdued United's only attacking spark. The only influential wide threat for United was Patrice Evra, who regularly darted forward into space only not to be given the ball, or isolated if he had it. It was his move that set up United's closest chance, a Rooney shimmy and shot that clattered the underside of the bar from inside the six yard box.

However, Villa held out in the second half for their first victory over United since August 1995 and if Rooney can have something to look forward to, it will be playing with Villa's English contingent at next year's World Cup.

First TV Package: Calvin King

2009-11-25T17:07:00.001Z

For my first ever complete TV package I interviewed amateur boxer Calvin King. The interview builds up to his upcoming fight in Bournemouth and even though the package is 1'22", the full interview has much more depth (Calvin is truly passionate about his sport) and I'll try and upload the full version soon.

Any criticisms are invited:

My voiceover reading is patchy at times, and the 'newsiness' format of the video could be changed (i.e. having the most significant aspect of the story come first). Also, Calvin's voice sounds a little quiet compared to my voiceover. Overall, I'm not at all displeased with my start. Producing TV journalism creates one hell of a rush, especially when you have something tangible to keep. This isn't investigative genius, but it's a step in the right direction...

Watch this space for my video of Calvin's fight on Friday - I'm looking forward to filming it!

Where do beleagured United go next?

2009-11-10T20:54:00.000Z

Well not quite out but certainly down, Manchester United lacked what's called "cutting edge" against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. If you looked at the British & Irish contingent, United represented themselves with gusto - Darren Fletcher was shoulder to shoulder with Michael Essien as the central best midfielder on the pitch. Wes Brown, John O'Shea and Jonny Evans subdued Lampard and Drogba. And Wayne Rooney ran the pocket better than the Artful Dodger himself. But ultimately, this was as cut as their cutting edge got.

So what cracked?

Was it resolve? Belief? United seemed to have all of those, but how do you subdue a subdued oufit like Chelsea? The Blues are quite happy letting you waste your energy, as with Antonio Valencia marking Ashley Cole out of the game, because as they've proven this season, they know how to win by the odd goal. Without Tevez and Ronaldo, something United now lack.

Not that the departures of those two should be mourned. United might be a little toothless, but off the field, Ronaldo's constant departure press was unsettling and Tevez's shoulder shrugging naivety at his contract dispute telling. Some might say United brought it upon themselves, but it's more complicated than that. Nemanja Vidic has been excellent until the Liverpool match (and even then), but fellow centre-back Rio Ferdinand's absence and Van Der Sar's slow return have left too many question marks in key positions. The more minutes Nani gets, the more we know he gets hot then cold as regularly as Simon Cowell's whim. Yet Gabriel Obertan has pace and potential in the attacking fold, and Anderson could still turn out to be a United mainstay.

It's not only the odd goal victories. If United face any of the top half dozen of Europe in the Champions League second round, the lack of penetration of the opposition's back four (ergo goals ergo killed games) seems uncharacteristic. Goals that United have provided silverware in the past 3 seasons. Michael Carrick seems to be proving us all right that he isn't a shooting-scoring centre-midfielder like Lampard. Anderson seems similarly clueless in, or around the box. Rooney doesn't score enough to justify being a goal machine (but shone on Sunday) - and Berbatov is frankly frustrating in front of goal. Giggs is, for his brilliance on the ball, seems off the pace.

It all seems a bit depressingly negative when talking about United. The next eight weeks could determine whether or not it'll be an underwhelming season for United, or an overachievement - the outcome will probably be somewhere in between.

"The Lives of Others" is a Masterpiece that Keeps Giving

2009-09-09T01:53:00.000+01:00

When I was watching the Oscars in 2007, I sat rooting for the Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth to win Best Movie in a Foreign Language. The film was depicted with dark gravitas and was well told, as well as being unique, labelled the "fairytale for adults". It would have taken a very good film to prize the Oscar from Del Toro's hands. So it did.

At the time, I hadn't seen this film, The Lives of Others, (it beat Pan's Labyrinth to the Oscar), from the snippets they play at the Oscars, it looked a pretty demure movie. The rich costumes and visual effects in Pan's Labyrinth were incredible, and it was my first Del Toro experience (and won't be my last!) - so The Lives of Others must have had some pretty awesome drama to beat Pan's Labyrinth.

Getting people to watch The Lives of Others, a subtitled German film set in 1984 against the wintery, grey backdrop of East Berlin is almost like crossing Checkpoint Charlie itself. It takes an open mind. But watching this movie is one of the most rewarding cinematic experiences I've ever had, and I've watched it over 10 times.

Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others) is set in 1984 and tells the story of Georg Dreyman, an East-German playwright and Weisler a spy from the mysterious state-run intelligence agents, the Stasi - and how their lives overlap in the Soviet side of Berlin. Weisler is an accomplished spy and interrogator, he knows his stuff, but whilst he has little interest in impressing the Soviet establishment, he is obsessed with his job. When he decides to monitor Georg Dreyman, he thinks he will find a Western sympathizer - so Weisler bugs his apartment. What Weisler discovers is that he is obsessed with the lives of Dreyman and his prescription-addicted girlfriend, and star of Georg's plays, Christa-Maria Sieland.

Like any good story, this film hums up the gears. Whilst some of the first 40-minutes drag a little, they effectively set up the tension in the second act and the finale. The dance between Dreyman and Weisler brings the tension throughout the movie. Dreyman increasingly realizes throughout the film that he should (and does) write anti-Soviet "subversive texts" for the West German press; and Weisler, increasingly discovers catharsis in literature and the drama of life between the couple. Weisler, despite the fact that he is employed to monitor the couple, intervenes to protect Dreyman and Sieland and becomes bolder, resulting in the tragedy at the end. You find out what touching lengths he has gone to to protect them from his superiors.

Whilst set in a very real, recent historical scape, many doubt the legitimacy of a seasoned Stasi agent breaking rank so. Indeed, at times the Soviet establishment in the film and even Weisler himself seem somewhat sympathetic. Yet that would undermine the engine of this work of fiction. Indeed, the theme of the movie is about fiction, moreover metafiction: the play within the play, the drama within the drama, the text within the text. Us watching Weisler watching Dreyman watching Seiland being watched by the audience is absolutely brilliant writing. Another beauty of the film lies in the fact that Dreyman and Weisler never directly interact, even after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They hear each other, feel each other, punish and reward each other, even write about and for each other - but never talk or meet. Not only a relevant theme for generation Y facebookers, tweeters (and bloggers!), but brilliantly explored.

Sebastian Koch as Georg Dreyman

Christa-Maria (Christ-Mary?), however, has a large part to play in the action and interacts with both men. She is labelled a Muse, mother and daughter. Indeed, the film seems to question how these mini-revolutions can spark into life - what is the muse and who is the mercenary? Who are the "Others", moreover - what is "Otherness" when you live in the same society? The title works brilliantly even in its English translation.

The plot winds up and up, until you reach a fantastic- but not altogether original - ending. However, the brilliant denouement is as rewarding as any movie I've ever watched. After watching it 10 times, it's still as viscerally affective as the first. I would question anyone's heart that doesn't jump for joy at this ending.

If this film was made in English, it would be far more popular in the US and UK - but the German with English subtitles seems to put people off. For me, this was one of the challenges that made the experience and the ending worth its weight in gold, after a while, you forget you're reading subtitles. The credit goes to Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck for writing, directing and producing this film. The performances he gets out of Martina Gedeck as Christa-Maria Sieland and Ulrich Muhe as Weisler are worth awards in themselves. Sadly Ulrich Muhe died of stomach cancer in 2007, but the fact that he was a successful stage actor as Hamlet for years in the 80's isn't surprising. In fact, Muhe was monitored as an actor, and was an active protester against the East German government - so the role was particularly poignant for him.

What saddens me is that Von Donnersmarck seems not to have any more work on the horizon - maybe he knows he's made his masterpiece, and on a small budget. Maybe he can't get the gigs in Hollywood that he deserves, or the control he wants, but that's the beauty of watching films that are produced by film-makers from outside Hollywood's increasingly manipulative industry of family-values and America-centric stories.

The Lives of Others is worth every line of the subtitles, and every minute of film. Whilst it might seem a little high brow to some, many overused, boring German stereotypes could be overcome by watching this film. It's really that good.

2009: Summer of Bolt (Mark 2)

2009-09-08T23:14:00.000+01:00

If you ask people what's marked out the summer of sport, it could be hard to choose. There was The Ashes cricket, whilst a very good series, lacked the zest of 2005's bowling brilliance of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath for Australia, and a top-form Steve Harmison and (altogether absent) Simon Jones for England. When driving through Cardiff on day 1 of the first Ashes test, I saw Simon Jones walking up Cathedral Road towards Sophia Gardens with a group of his friends. He seemed relaxed in a black suit jacket taking in the atmosphere. A lot of England fans (especially those from Wales) will have been wishing Simon was fit and wearing all white that day. Alas.

Nevertheless, it goes to show that a sporting series can be excellent regardless of whether the cream-talents are there or not. The Ashes were enthralling, and after England won convincingly at Lord's and then Australia likewise at Headingly, the finale at The Oval proved that Test cricket series' remain one of sport's most unique multi-day carnivals.

A talent shuffle might also prove one of many determining factors in the chase for the Premier League this season. Manchester City have vehemently iterated and re-iterated that whilst they have spent a lot of money on players this summer, they are not like Real Madrid and their Galacticos. I don't see the difference.

The biggest loss to the Premier League will definitely be Cristiano Ronaldo. His ability to create something from nothing, find space and score from distance, tap-ins, headers, penalties, free-kicks, one-on-ones and generally perform his irresistible step-overs is a massive loss for our league. He is one of a kind, a tremendous athlete, and seemed to be finding the nack of pulling it out in the biggest matches. United will need a tactical paradigm shift - with Rooney the new fulcrum - and Fergie will need to update the soft midfield if they're to win back the Champions League.

The best sporting event of the summer was certainly the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. The blue track proved to be a rip-roaring success, the Olympistadion looked stunning in the golden light and there were some outstanding performances from Kenenisa Bakele winning the 10k and 5k double, the controversial Caster Semenya in the womens' 800m - who can surely dominate the event and break world records (watch out London), and Jess Ennis was finally injury-free and able to win a world title, she went out and dominated the heptathlon from day 1, it was a focused and methodical victory - how wonderfully German!

New paragraph needed for this topic: USAIN BOLT. The man is beyond compare. Michael Johnson is my living athletics idol - watching him on the BBC since the Commonwealths in Manchester 2002 has been brilliant, he dominated the 200m and 400m because he lived, breathed, indeed, became both events. Johnson was the greatest sprinter since Carl Lewis. When he ran 19.32 in the Olympic Final in Atlanta 96, many people thought that world record would never be broken.

In 2004 I was really excited to watch a young, gangly Jamaican who was rumoured to be an excellent fast-bowler on the cricket pitch. He was World Junior Champion at the age of 15, running against 19-year olds (ironically in Kingston, Jamaica), the youngest ever gold medalist at a World Junior championships. However, in Athens 2004 things just didn't go well for Bolt. He had been hampered by injuries and had inconsistent form he was subsequently eliminated in the first round of the 200m. Yet, the next three seasons saw Bolt hampered by injury time after time. He finished second in the 200m in Osaka 2007 to Tyson Gay, a man who had come to dominate the 100 and 200m.

In Beijing, it was a case of it all coming together. Nobody who watched those Olympics, will ever forget the 100m final with Bolt striding over the line, arms in the air, to the tune of 9.69 seconds and a new world record. Cue an even better Berlin 2009. 9.58 in the 100m, and 19.19 in the 2oom. Staggering.

Bolt isn't so much a sprinter as a gymnast. With his gangly, 6'5" frame, the way he manipulates his limbs, is beautiful to watch. The smoothness of his technique, great knee lift and now, excellent start is tribute to some great coaching from his coach Glen Mills. The way he beat Tyson Gay in the 100m final was the sporting moment of the summer. Gay was beside himself after the race was over - the 2nd best sprinter of all time, and he was .13 seconds and a couple of metres behind his rival. I don't think Tyson Gay will ever be the same again - his body language is too revealing, running in the 100m in Gateshead a week ago, he dominated the race and won by metres, but has lost his invincibility in the event. Luckily Gay is a great loser, and a gentleman. Both Bolt and Gay know that the sport is bigger than either man, and a more important stage than either of their individual antics. Nevertheless, Bolt has brought the party atmosphere to athletics that it needed after the likes of Maurice Greene, Ato Bolton, Dwain Chambers, even Darren Campbell. It's noticable how old hat Chambers now looks in comparison.

The paradox is, Bolt probably is bigger than athletics - a paragon of our age. He's in the Phelps, Federer, Woods pantheon - and then some!

It goes to show that even though you can have quality sporting events without great talent - nothing substitutes for a superstar! 2009 was the Summer of Bolt!